No goodwill for the opposition

Published:11:52Saturday 20 December 2014

This is the season to be merry. Goodwill to all. Unfortunately, I have to let my Santa beard slip a bit. I have no goodwill towards the Tory government, their Lib Dem lapdogs, and the chancers known as, for now at least, UKIP.

First off, we had the Autumn Statement in Chancellor George Osborne got all his figures wrong but still managed to give more to rich Tory donors at the expense of the poor and hard-working families struggling to cope with zero hours contracts, pay freezes and the ‘bedroom tax’.

They promised we would be all in this together but then they gave millionaires a huge tax cut.

They promised people would be better off but most people in Blyth Valley are not feeling the recovery and working people are now £1,600 a year worse off under the Tories. Robin Hood in reverse.

Osborne and David Cameron have broken every election promise ... which brings us to their coalition partners.

From student fees to pensions, they have reneged on every pledge.

The only faint sign of sunshine on the horizon is that little-noticed academic research suggests that UKIP will inflict much more damage on the Conservatives in the May general election than on Labour.

The British Election Study found that many of Labour’s core supporters had already deserted their party between 2001 and 2010 as a reaction to Tony Blair and New Labour and have since moved to UKIP.

As a lifetime Labourite and Socialist, that sticks in my craw, but despite their recent by-election successes, there is a lot of evidence that UKIP have been exposed as not the ‘People’s Party’ but ‘Mark 2 Tories’.

If May results in a hung parliament will the few UKIP MPs be supporting the Tories? Of course, they will.